France will go ahead with a ban on mobile phones in high schools from the start of the new school year, even after the country’s top constitutional body struck down a related plan to restrict children’s access to social media.
Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon confirmed the decision on Monday, saying President Emmanuel Macron had chosen to sign the wider bill into law despite the setback.
“Macron has decided to promulgate the law,” Bregeon told reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting, adding that this would allow “the ban on mobile phones in high schools to take effect from the start of the new school year, with a stable, consolidated and statutory legal framework.”
France’s parliament approved the legislation in July. It combined two separate ideas: a ban on phones in high schools, and new restrictions on social media access for children under 15.
The Constitutional Council, France’s top court on constitutional matters, later rejected the social media provision. The ruling did not touch the phone ban, so the government pressed ahead with that part alone.
France already bars mobile phones in primary schools and colleges, which serve pupils aged 11 to 15. The new rule simply extends that ban to high schools, closing what officials describe as a gap in the system.
A Second Attempt On Social Media Is Coming
Macron’s office says the president still wants to stop young people from freely accessing platforms such as TikTok, and will bring a new bill to parliament.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has been tasked with drafting a revised version of the social media law.
“The president’s objective is to have a stable legal framework in place by next spring to protect our children and young people,” Bregeon said.
Macron is due to leave office next spring, after serving the maximum two consecutive terms permitted under French law, so the timeline effectively hands the unfinished policy to whoever succeeds him.
The French case comes amid growing global unease about children’s exposure to social media, screen time and online predators, a debate that has also touched African countries, including Nigeria, where child online-safety advocacy groups have called for tighter regulation of platforms used by minors.
France’s approach — banning devices at school while separately regulating platform access by age — offers one example other governments are now studying as they weigh similar restrictions.
New Zealand Considers An Under-16 Social Media Ban
New Zealand is pursuing an even stricter approach. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s government has introduced the Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill, which would stop children under 16 from using high-risk platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and YouTube.
The bill would compel platforms to verify users’ ages through account information, facial age estimation, digital ID services or formal identification.
Companies that fail to comply could be fined up to 10% of their global revenue, and a new online safety regulator would sit inside the Department of Internal Affairs to police compliance.
Messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Discord, gaming and music platforms such as Roblox and Spotify, and productivity-focused AI chatbots would be exempt.
The bill faces a rocky path through parliament. Two of the ruling coalition’s partners, ACT and New Zealand First, oppose it over privacy and enforcement concerns, meaning the government needs Labour’s support to pass it.
Luxon has conceded that some children will still find ways around the ban, including through VPNs, but argues the law is part of a longer campaign to shift social norms around children’s online safety. As of August 24, 2026, the bill remains before parliament and has not been enacted.
Hmm, notice how European countries are one by one setting bans on social media use by children? There must be something they are seeing that we are yet to acknowledge, Africa please follow suite.